WASHINGTON CONNECTICUT – I’m continuing to push the limits of my Leica Monochrom. Today I put an infrared filter on the camera and spent the day shooting infrared. I usually don’t like the strong infra red look (with white foliage) so when I shoot IR I usually shoot it in the winter. Here we are in the garden shooting infra red.
On this day last year: Astilbe.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – The conversations around here today were about people’s bad drive – the Saw Mill Parkway was closed because of flooding from torrential rains. Build an ark. Today is midway through what turned out to be three days of steady, heavy downpour. Demotivating to a guy who likes blue skies and puffy clouds. I’m going to push a bit on the technical side this weekend, so watch out for gimmicks. Today I tried to cut the gloom by using on-camera flash for landscape with my Leica M and Leica S, shooting for either very wide or very narrow depth of focus. Here are some example:
On this day last year: Why did I take this? Allow me a moment of public self-flagellation. Why on earth did I take this? I guess every year needs a worst picture but this looks like I was out to establish a low point.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – We had ten for dinner tonight. I catered it myself. The trick in this number is to minimize last-minute preparation, for example by planning on side dishes that are served at room temperature, spring veggies with a bagna cauda sauce (substituting finely chopped chorizo for the anchovies), green pea puree and a warm potato salad. The entree, a butterflied leg of lamb marinated in yogurt, was an easy last minute roast, so the only last minute cooking activity was carving the lamb. Here we are at the table taken with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Summillux lens.
On this day last year: chrome column.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Near the end of the busiest season of the year in my law practice. Taken on the street with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Dual Range Summicron.
On this day last year: Harley.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A couple from the street today. Taken with my Leica Monochrom and 1959 Leica Dual Range Summicron. The second images is three frames stitched.
On this day last year: Rabbit. A meal for one.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A lot of pictures today. If you scroll down to May 17, 2013 you will see that Francesca, our daughter, graduated from law school one year ago. Well today, 368 days later, she was sworn into the New York bar. So the bar cram course, the bar exam, waiting for the results, gathering up details about her background, submitting a bunch of stuff to the character and fitness committee and getting a date to be sworn in take a year more or less. Congratulations Francesca.
After lunch I had the first session in a class at the ICP – we’ll be rephotographing iconic New York images. This is familiar territory for me starting with Mark Klett’s rephotographic survey and Douglas Levere’s rephotography of Berenice Abbott’s 1939 book, Changing New York. Abbott’s photographs are meticulously documented – many of her most famous works were done while she was employed by the Museum of the City of New York to document the City. After an hour of getting to know each other at the ICP and a half hour discussion of where to start we went down to the Flatiron Building to re-shoot Berenice Abbott’s famous 1938 image. This worked well for me because I own a print of this image – it’s in our front hall in New York.
I didn’t realize that we would be shooting so I was packing only my walk-around camera, my Leica Monochrom and a 1959 Dual-Range 50mm Summicron lens (the perfect kit to photograph Francesca earlier in the day). I needed a much wider lens for the Flatiron shot so I ended up stitching four frames. After fussing around a bit we figured out where Abbott was shooting from – it’s a traffic island now as I’m certain it was then. I’ve included a poor jpeg of Abbott’s original for comparison.
Anyway, Francesca outside of the First Department Courthouse.
Francesca and her “Don’t mess with me, I’m a lawyer” expression.
My rephotographic effort of the Flatiron Building:
The Abbott original:
A few more:
On this day last year: 11th Avenue Project.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – This is not another cheap shot of Basil the Norfolk Terrier. It’s actually a picture of Francesca. She’s the out of focus one in the back with the top of her head cut off.
Taken with my Leica S medium format camera.
On this day one year ago: Scouting.
